The Council of Europe (CoE) has called on Greece to enact stricter border laws and take a “zero-tolerance approach to summary returns” as reports of unauthorized migrant deportations persist despite growing international censure.
In the last several months, Greece has been repeatedly and seriously accused by international bodies, courts, and human rights organizations of the practice of mass forced returns of migrants-more commonly known as “pushbacks”-along its borders, both land and sea. These practices have generated serious concerns about abuses of European and international human rights norms.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have also reported instances in which the Greek Coast Guard was accused of leaving migrants adrift at sea, forcibly transferring people to rafts with no motors, or sabotaging vessels to keep them from reaching Greece.
Following a visit to Greece in February, the CoE’s human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, released the recommendations. “The commissioner is concerned about the allegations received during his visit regarding persistent practices of summary returns — also referred to as ‘pushbacks’ or ‘informal forced returns’ — at both land and maritime borders,” read the memorandum.
“Returning people without carrying out an individual identification procedure prevents member states from establishing whether they may be sending them back to human rights abuses.”
After the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Greece in January, concluding that Athens had broken European human rights conventions by deliberately removing refugees without due process, the pushback charges had legal relevance.
Specifically, the Court decided in January 2025 that Greece practiced “systematic pushback” tactics, summarily expelling migrants from its borders without individualized assessment or access to asylum proceedings. The court established strong evidence that the expulsions were carried out without risk assessments and frequently with illegal detention and clandestine operations, contravening the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly the prohibition on torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Complaints include alleged excessive or unjustified use of force, sexual violence, and degrading treatment of migrants during pushback operations. In a landmark case, the ECtHR found that Greek officials had failed to prevent a tragic incident at sea and subjected its survivors to public strip searches, constituting degrading treatment.
Additionally, the coast guard said Tuesday that it had rescued 158 migrants from three dinghies south of the island of Crete with the help of Frontex, the EU’s border enforcement agency, and adjacent commercial vessels.
Frontex also said last month that it was looking into a number of alleged human rights abuses by Greece in its handling of illegal immigrants. Frontex stated that it is investigating 12 suspected significant occurrences, most of which took place in 2024, but it provided no other information.
Chris Borowski, an agency spokeswoman, said the agency recently improved its complaint process. “The Fundamental Rights Office is presently reviewing 12 severe event complaints pertaining to Greece. Everyone is being carefully inspected,” he stated.
